The Son of man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all offences, and those that practise lawlessness;
Matthew 13:41 comes from the Lord's own explanation of the parable of the wheat and the weeds. He says what happens at the end to the good and evil that grew up side by side in the world. Two words carry the weight: His kingdom, and the angels He sends to clear it.
The harvest that closes this age does not close the world's history. One writer points to this verse as the proof. The earth is cleared so that it can go on:
Far from being the end of the world, the next verse proves the opposite. The Lord sends His angels and purges from the field (or world) what is offensive to Him. In short, He punishes the living wicked, and the righteous shine in the kingdom of their Father… The harvest that closes this age will be the start of the world going on in blessing under the kingdom of the Son of Man on display.
Verse 41 speaks of the Son of Man's kingdom; verse 43 speaks of the Father's. Commentators read these as the earthly and heavenly sides of a single kingdom of God:
Here we have the upper region, called the kingdom of the Father, and the lower, the kingdom of the Son of Man… Those gathered out are not even allowed to be on the earth. They are cast into a furnace of fire. "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Both are "the kingdom of God." What a glorious prospect! Is it not a sweet thought that God will deliver even this present scene of ruin and confusion? That He will have the joy of His heart, not only in filling the heavens with His glory, but in honouring the Son of Man in the very place where men rejected Him?
The word His matters. Another writer sees in it a change in Christ's position:
"The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom" — it is now His kingdom, He is not simply sitting on the Father's throne.
The two things gathered out are traps that make others fall, and people whose lives are lawlessness. The scene of the gathering is the same field the parable began with:
Does anyone doubt that our Saviour speaks of the harvest-field, the world, as His kingdom? At His coming He sends His angels there to gather out all offences (or traps that make people fall) and those who practise lawlessness. … The earth is purged for the Son of Man's kingdom, not yet dissolved or destroyed. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father.
This gathering says something sobering about the kingdom's present state:
Weeds are in it as well as wheat, foolish virgins as well as wise. At the end of the age the Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers. So the kingdom will be freed — but they must be in it to be gathered out.
The verse names who carries out the clearing, and it is not the Lord's servants:
The execution of judgment on the wicked in this world does not belong to the servants of Christ. He will accomplish it by the angels of His power, to whom He commits the execution of this work.
Another writer applies the same rule to the professing church today:
The children of the wicked one will be disentangled from the children of the kingdom and cleared right out. That happens when the Son of Man comes and opens the era of the kingdom displayed in power. Angels will do this work, not men. To clear the evil out of Christendom is no business of ours.
Because verse 41 removes the wicked and verse 43 shines on the righteous, some read the passage as the taking away of the church. One writer answers that the sequence runs the other way:
Matthew 13:41 and 43 only prove one thing: when the wicked are judged, the righteous shine out. But the righteous had already been gathered into the barn so that they could do so… Judgment leaves the just where they were. One is taken and the other left.
The clearing is not revenge. It prepares the earth for the reign of righteousness:
He gathers out of His Kingdom all things that offend. It must be so, for righteousness is about to reign. During the present day of grace righteousness suffers because evil is predominant.
- Whose kingdom — The field is the world. At the harvest Christ claims it as His kingdom. He is no longer only seated on the Father's throne.
- What is cleared — Not the world itself. He removes all that trips people up, and all who live in lawlessness.
- Who clears it — Angels, sent by the Son of Man. This judgment is not the servants' work, so clearing the church by human hands is not our task.
- When — At the close of this age, after the wheat is already safe in the barn. This is judgment, not the taking away of the church.
- Why — Because righteousness is about to reign. God will honour Christ in the very place where men rejected Him.
and they shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
These words come from Jesus' own explanation of the parable of the wheat and the weeds, given to His disciples away from the crowd. He tells them what the harvest does with the weeds, and the furnace He pictures raises hard questions about judgment and how long it lasts.
The verse belongs to a harvest that closes the present age. One writer draws a line between the two kinds of work going on — the gospel now, judgment then:
"The reapers are the angels." We have nothing to do with the judging. Our part is only to spread the good; the angels' part is to judge the wicked… The harvest is the close of the age, that is, of the present period. It is the time while the Lord is absent and the gospel goes out over the earth. Grace is going out now. The only means God uses to work on souls are moral or spiritual. The angels bring in providential judgment; while the gospel lays hold of poor sinners to save them.
What follows this verse is the righteous shining out. That order matters. The harvest clears the earth for a coming age instead of wiping it out:
The earth is cleansed in this way for the Son of Man's kingdom — not yet dissolved or destroyed. Who can doubt that the righteous will then shine out like the sun in the kingdom of the Father? This is the age to come before eternity, the thousand-year age. The glorified are on high, and the earth is free from the usurper and blessed under the reign of Christ.
Weeds thrown on a fire disappear. Some argue from that picture that the wicked stop existing. One writer answered a question about this verse. The rest of it, he says, rules that reading out:
The explanation shows that the thought here is not extinction. People only reach that idea from what fire does to weeds. The effect of the fire, as of the outer darkness, is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So the effect shown is not the end of existence, as some claim, but suffering. It is suffering called everlasting, set against everlasting life. The fire is a figure, the usual figure of judgment… They will be tormented forever and ever — words used for the length of God's own existence.
Neither reaction is a change of heart. One writer explains what each one shows:
The weeping is only in self-pity, not in repentance. Wailing is the attitude of complaining, because faith is absent. Gnashing of teeth is a spirit of rebellion, not corrected even by the solemn judgment of God.
Does each person there show both? One writer thinks not:
The two words "weeping" and "gnashing" of teeth bring out different characters. I do not think both must be true of every person.
One writer traced every place this phrase appears and found the same sort of person each time:
Weeping and gnashing of teeth! We point to this phrase, used elsewhere in the New Testament only by Matthew. It always refers to those who have made light of the offer of grace… The Jews boasted in their natural descent from Abraham and gloried in it. That descent will do nothing for them if they reject grace… They will show everlasting sorrow and regret for their folly in rejecting the salvation offered to them in this life.
The furnace carries out a sentence; it does not open a trial:
We must never for a moment think that the judgment has to do with deciding whether a soul is saved or lost. That is settled in this life. At the Great White Throne, judgment will be measured out rightly, in perfect righteousness, and no one will have a word to say.
- Now — grace works. While the Lord is absent the gospel goes out, and the only means God uses on souls are moral and spiritual.
- Now — the case closes. This life settles whether a soul is saved or lost. The furnace does not.
- Then — angels act. At the end of the age the angels take up the judging. They clear the field instead of destroying it, so the earth can be blessed under Christ's reign.
- Then — the figure holds. Fire is the usual picture of judgment. The weeping after it proves suffering, not extinction — suffering called everlasting, set against everlasting life.
- Then — hearts stay hard. Weeping is self-pity. Gnashing is rebellion. The sorrow there is regret over grace refused here, never repentance.
Then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that has ears, let him hear.
The Lord has just told His disciples why the weeds stay in the field until harvest. Now He turns from the removal of evil to what follows it: when the righteous shine, whose light they shine with, and why He calls it their Father's kingdom.
The shining has a date. It comes after the gathering out of the wicked, and one writer weighs the exact words the Lord used.
The severing then takes place. The weeds are gathered and thrown into a furnace of fire, and "then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Notice how exact the wording is: "Then the righteous will shine" — not "Then they will be caught up." It will be a new age, with no mixing of the good and the bad. The gathering out of the wicked for judgment closes this age, so that the good may be blessed in the next.
The order matters. The wheat reaches safety before the fire falls, and the shining comes last.
The weeds are gathered into bundles to be burned; and before they are thrown into the furnace of fire, the wheat is gathered into His barn... First we have the practical separation — the providential gathering of the wheat out of the way of judgment into the barn. Then comes the actual judgment of the weeds. And following on that, the wheat shines forth.
Why is the field not cleaned up now? One writer finds the answer in what is promised here.
It is a matter of further revelation that then the righteous will shine as the sun in the kingdom of the Father. And it seems to me that the term "the righteous" is not necessarily limited to those who lived after the seed of the kingdom was sown. This is the reason why there was no question, in the meantime, of purifying the field here below. God had better counsels in store for us.
Just before this the Lord spoke of the Son of Man's kingdom. Here He says "their Father." Commentators read the change as marking two spheres of one reign.
The Father's kingdom is heavenly, just as plainly as the Son of Man's kingdom is earthly. Matthew 13:41-43 proves it. The risen saints shine as the sun — and the sun is not earthly — in their Father's kingdom. Meanwhile the Son of Man, by His angels, carries out judgment on all offences and unrighteous persons in His kingdom, and just as plainly on earth.
If the righteous shine like the sun, whose light is it? One writer answers by setting the two spheres side by side.
Notice the contrast. The Kingdom of the Son of Man is below; the Kingdom of the Father is above. The righteous reign in the Kingdom of the Son of Man; they shine in the Kingdom of their Father. The Sun of righteousness has risen on the earth, and this is why the righteous shine as the sun. They are with Him, sharers of His glory. They are not suns themselves — central, independent orbs — but shining with the glory put upon them.
One writer connects the word "shine" here with an earlier scene in Matthew.
I note that this word "shine" is the same as the one used of our Lord on the mountain where He was transfigured — "His face shone like the sun" (Matt. 17:2).
One word carries the warmth here: "their." It tells the believer whose kingdom he will shine in.
Further, notice that it says, "In the kingdom of their Father." Here is great blessedness to the child of God in this word of happiness that makes it his own. It shows the position in which the Lord Jesus has placed them — associated with God as their Father, in His kingdom... He unites Himself to them as one who calls them brothers. He calls them to look up to God as their Father: "I will tell of your name to my brothers"; and again, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."
The verse ends with a call the Lord had already used earlier in the chapter. One writer notes who it singles out now.
Yet, though covering so large a sphere, the Lord says in verse 9, "He who has ears, let him hear." In the Old Testament the call went to all Israel, to all the people. Now it comes to each of us, to a Christian personally. Whatever happens, no one can hand this responsibility of hearing and receiving the truth of God to someone else. Woe to those who deny or weaken it.
- Cleared — the angels gather out the offences and the lawless first; the shining starts only when the mixture in the kingdom is over.
- Kept — the wheat goes into the barn before the fire falls; the righteous are safe before the glory begins.
- Above — "their Father's kingdom" is the heavenly side; the Son of Man's kingdom is the earthly side of the same reign.
- Borrowed — they shine because they are with the Sun of righteousness, wearing a glory put on them, not their own.
- Heard — the promise closes with an appeal to the individual, and each hearer answers for his own ears.